Guide to Creative Writing and the Imagination

<p>Teaching creative writing for the multicultural, global, and digital generation, this volume offers a fresh approach for enhancing core writing skills in the major forms of Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction, and Drama. <em>A Guide to Creative Writing and the Imagination</em> aims to provide students with organic, active learning through imitation and examples which not only emphasize writing and reading but look to other art forms for inspiration. This volume’s key features include:</p><p>• Strengthening key underlying capabilities of what we mean by imagination: physical and mental alertness, clarity of perception, listening skills, attention to detail, sustained concentration, lateral thinking, and enhanced memory. </p><p>• Taking direction from other art forms such as African American musical improvisation, Brancusi’s sculptural idea of “finding form,” key ideas from drawing such as foreground, background, and negative space—and some of the great lessons learned from National Geographic photography. </p><p>• Incorporating techniques drawn from unusual sources such as advertising, military intelligence, ESL, working with the blind, stage magic, and oral traditions of remote indigenous cultures in Oceania and Africa. </p><p>The work is intended for a global English market as a core or supplementary text at the undergraduate level and as a supporting frame at the M.F.A. level.</p> <p><strong>Part 1: Going Wokabout</strong></p><p>-Purpose and Plan</p><p>-Fevering Forward</p><p>-A Multimedia Artist Reflects</p><p>-What to Pack</p><p>-Three Spiral Paths</p><p>-Headwaters </p><p>-New Ways for New Days</p><p>-Reflections on Publishing from an Agent’s Point of View</p><p>-Key Takeout Points</p><p>-Learning by Imitation</p><p>Part 2: Gaining Perspective</p><p>-Introductory Parable</p><p>-Live the Map</p><p>-Present Tense, Future Tenser?</p><p>-Of a Fire in the Mind</p><p>-The Basic Writing Point of View</p><p>-The Unfortunate Perspective of Regret</p><p>-A Critical Point of View</p><p>-Found in Translation</p><p>-People, Place, and Language</p><p>-Race, Language, and Culture</p><p>-Public Health, Private Healing</p><p>-In Conversation with Leland Cheuk</p><p>Part 3: Aerial View </p><p>-Introductory Parable</p><p>-An Underlying Unity</p><p>-The Subject is Always…</p><p>-Why Should YOU Write?</p><p>-What to Write About</p><p>-Imagery</p><p>-Subjects / Themes / Premises / Concepts</p><p>-Titles</p><p>-Characters</p><p>-Setting</p><p>-Plot</p><p>-Voice / Style</p><p>-Narrative Perspective</p><p>-Conflicts</p><p>-Suspense / Surprise</p><p>-Tone</p><p>-Transitions </p><p>-Grammar</p><p>-Accuracy & Ethos (Authorial Authority / Credibility)</p><p>-Revision</p><p>-Well Made Things (Holistic Care)</p><p>-Important General Concepts</p><p>-What Makes Coherence?</p><p>Part 4: Tactical Resources</p><p>Quick Think Exercises</p><p>Memory Arcade (The Listening Memory Method)</p><p>Word Arcade</p><p>Part 5: The Writing Program</p><p>Poetry </p><p>Fiction </p><p>Drama (Writing for Performance) </p><p>Nonfiction </p><p>Part 6: Spiral Mind (Not Yet Arrived)</p><p>-Introductory Parable</p><p>-Imagination in Context</p><p>-Alertness (Alive & Now)</p><p>-The Mystery of Memory</p><p>-Exercising Memory</p><p>-A Welcome Ambush: Join the Surprise Part!</p><p>-The General Method</p><p>-Some Case Studies: Imagination Performed</p><p>Annexes</p><p>-From Revision to Evolution</p><p>-Seven Essential Points for Writers</p><p>-Write About What You Know and Be Confined…</p><p>-Truth, Memory, and the Right to Your Own Life</p><p>-The Discipline</p><p>-Recommended World Reading</p>